Posted on 11/05/2007 1:23:49 AM PST by abb
Hollywood's film and television writers went on strike early this morning after last-ditch efforts to negotiate a deal with the major studios failed Sunday.
Despite the aid of a federal mediator and back-channel talks between top writers and studio executives, the sides were ultimately too far apart to bridge the massive divide between them and avert the first writers strike in nearly two decades.
After three months of contentious negotiations, talks broke down Wednesday night when the writers' three-year contract expired. Although they made minimal headway on some issues Sunday, the parties could not come to terms on such key issues as how much writers are paid when their shows are sold online.
The question now is no longer whether or when they will strike, but how long a walkout will last and how much pain it will inflict.
Both sides are girding for what many believe will be a long and debilitating strike, potentially more disruptive than the 22-week walkout by writers in 1988, which cost the entertainment industry an estimated $500 million.
"Once it starts, it's going to get ugly," said one of the guild's strike captains Sunday.
snip
"It is unfortunate that they choose to take this irresponsible action," alliance President Nick Counter said.
The guild said that although the union had agreed to withdraw its proposal to double DVD pay, which had been a stumbling block in negotiations, producers refused to make concessions in other key areas. Among other things, producers refused to grant the union jurisdiction for most new-media writing, the guild said. They also insisted on a proposal that would allow them to reuse movies or TV shows on any platform for promotional purposes with no residual payment.
snip
(Excerpt) Read more at latimes.com ...
ping
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/05/business/media/05carr.html?ref=media
November 5, 2007
The Media Equation
New Media, New Value, Old Troubles
By DAVID CARR
In the hierarchy of things the American public seems not to care about — the national debt, Paris Hilton’s charitable works, Fred D. Thompson’s campaign for president — the Hollywood screenwriters’ strike probably wins hands down.
If negotiations that were continuing deep into the night were unsuccessful and no delay was agreed upon, this morning 12,000 members of the Writers Guild of America will be trading their laptops for picket signs in New York and Los Angeles.
The financial markets, along with the public, has yet to muster much more than a yawn about the possibility that the authors of much of the content in theaters and on television will walk away and wait for a better offer from the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers.
It’s been almost 20 years since the last writers’ strike, and those who do remember probably recall that everyone managed to get through it with a minimum of trauma. There were still movies to see, television programs to watch, and hey, if Letterman was a little short on jokes, no worries. He’ll be back.
The question this time around is different for both the studios and the writers: will viewers be back?
Just in case you haven’t been following it closely — shocking, that — the writers announced a strike to begin today over the producers’ unwillingness to give them what they figure is a fair cut of the so-called new-media revenue and to revisit the issue of compensation for DVDs.
Screenwriters argue that their labors generally create programming that has very high value — value that would seem to multiply as it spread over more platforms.
Media companies have a story to tell as well: If they are about to make jillions on new media, the markets don’t seem to think so.
If the strike is a lengthy one, television will slowly begin to reflect that the writers’ room has emptied out. Some talk shows will hit the repeat button immediately; soap operas will dry up; and after a time, some episodic television shows will run out of new material.
snip
So who’s going to write all of those great sequels, remakes, and movies based on tv series? This is a disaster.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/05/business/media/05writers.html?ref=media
November 5, 2007
Writers on the Picket Line Would Feel a Varying Pinch
By BROOKS BARNES
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/05/business/media/05pencils.html?ref=media
November 5, 2007
So-Called Show Runners Pick Sides in Looming Strike
By BROOKS BARNES
WGA TALKS COLLAPSE
HOLLYWOOD WRITERS EAST AND WEST STRIKE!
Question Is Who Walked Out On Whom?
Real Progress Had Been Made On Key Issues Sunday
Dueling AMPTP and WGA Statements
The 411 on WGA Picketing: Red Shirts Alert!
Hollywood Looks To ‘ER’ Producer/Writer To Prevent Long Costly Bitter Walkout
Sorry to hear this. The 2007 season is the first one in years there have been multiple new main network shows that interested me. Pushing Daisies and Life (with Damian Lewis from Band of Brothers again demonstrating his flawless American accent). There are reports that if the strike lasts very long they’ll throw out all the new shows and start over.
Years between Arrested Development and now that if they stuck I wouldn’t have cared, and they miss the window. My liking as show is the kiss of death. Fortunately it’s rare.
Will anyone really notice they are on strike ... or even care?
That’s the point. Hollywood is terrified at the prospect that viewers of their swill will flee to other entertainment venues. The internet, for example.
I view all this as very good news.
Hopefully they are on strike for about a year. That way, we don’t have to see any new movie about how bad the marines are in Iraq, or how poor are Mexican children because of the air pollution resulted from the US not agreeing with Kyoto...
As long as Turner Classic Movies and Fox Movie Channel are on, I’m set.
Writers create the characters, create the dialogue, create the stories for the shows Americans watch on TV and in the movie theaters. They want a fair cut of the money that's being made from their labor. Those braying about this would freak out if their own work were being sold for others' profit on the internet, or had future profits kept by producers.
What will be interesting is seeing how people will realize that these goofy stars they think somehow just come up with all this stuff they say don't actually think for themselves.
I agree with this assessment. By extension then, one could infer writers bear a great deal of responsibility for the cultural degradation in the U. S. over the past 50 years or so. I'm hoping this strike will lessen Hollywood's influence on the culture.
Does hollywood really think I care? That’s one whole industry that can be flushed right now. Very little in the way of quality ever comes from them.
Sure, if you think people aren't responsible for their own actions, but are brainwashed by that crap on TV.
Without question they are.
What's your evidence of this, aside from just holding a position that's popular among conservatives?
How is that position anything but the liberal "society made him this way" pose with a conservative spin?
They take their audiences for granted.
They think it won’t matter if a strike will make episodes late or non-existant. Viewers will hang in there, right?
Wrong.
We’ll probably get a new wave of “reality shows” because of this. Ever notice how they don’t seem to have any script?
I think I'll go with this logic. I'm in good company and it's stood me in good stead for over fifty years. In my opinion, of course.
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